With the holiday shopping season under way, state Attorney General George Jepsen is calling on the country’s largest credit card issuers to better protect consumers from identity theft — quickly.

Jepsen and eight other attorneys general have asked the leaders of MasterCard, Visa, Discover Financial Services, Bank of America, Capital One, Citigroup, American Express and JPMorgan Chase to expedite efforts to bring chip-and-PIN technology to all credit cards as soon as possible.

The technology is widely considered a more secure method of processing credit and debit card transactions, compared with traditional magnetic-stripe cards.

As opposed to swiping a traditional credit and debit card, consumers insert their chip-and-PIN card into a card reader and keep the card in the reader until the transaction is complete, including when they enter their PIN. The chip within the card approves the transaction.

“Over the last few years, breaches at major retailers that involved credit and debit card information have really shown a giant spotlight at the inherent weakness and vulnerability of magnetic strip cards even when the cards are lost or stolen,” Jepsen said in a statement.